Title I funding would receive an increase after several years of flat funding, while charter schools, the National Assessment of Educational Programs, and Head Start would also see more money in the fiscal 2016 federal budget.

ESSA's regulatory process may be particularly tricky, since the law seeks to strike a delicate balance between handing power over to states and reining in the feds, while on the other hand ensuring there are some "guardrails" in place to help struggling schools and traditionally overlooked groups of students.